Pirates’ Day volunteer sues over lost hearing from powder rifle blast: ‘It’s not a joke’

A fake pirate-ship captain with listening to harm from a dummy rifle fired subsequent to his head is suing the Johnny Depp look-alike buccaneer who broadsided him at a beloved annual Milford, Conn., occasion.

Walter Micks, 61, was taking part in his half at Pirate Day when volunteer swashbuckler Tucker Reynolds, 52, “walked over . . .  and shot off a black powder rifle immediately subsequent to the plaintiff’s ear,” injuring him with an “excessively explosive sound,” in response to the lawsuit filed in Connecticut Superior Courtroom. 

Two years later, Micks nonetheless has listening to loss and tinnitus — ringing within the ears.

“All people thinks it’s a joke — it’s not a joke,” stated Micks’ lawyer, Edmund Collier. 

The dummy weapon “seems to be like a musket,” he stated..

“It doesn’t fireplace a projectile. The sound that emanates from this weapon is a loud bang. Everybody else goes dwelling positive from Pirate Day, and Walter has to stay with this day by day for the remainder of his life. That is one thing that’s debilitating, and it’s an enormous deal.” 

In accordance with native lore, Captain William Kidd in 1699 handed by means of Milford, stopping to bury stolen treasure on tiny Charles Island, now a nature protect. Milford has marked the event with a festive, family-friendly day for some 20 years. 

After a breakfast of “pancakes with pirates,” the day unfolds with a treasure hunt, kiddie occasions and the arrival of Captain Kidd — performed by radio persona Brian Smith — in Milford Harbor. 

The occasion is “Milford’s favourite swashbuckling custom,” in response to its sponsor, the Downtown Milford Enterprise Affiliation, additionally named within the go well with. Reps of the group declined to remark.

It was no enjoyable for Micks. The go well with states he additionally suffers from sleep loss, fatigue and different quality-of-life points.

“Our claims towards Tucker are negligence,” Collier stated. “We aren’t attempting to engender any sick will towards the Pirate Day people.” Micks — sporting a tricorne hat and a tie-dye shirt — was a volunteer “doing one thing good for town, and got here away with this damage by means of no fault of his personal.” 

Reynolds’ lawyer, Thomas Cotter, stated the volunteer buccaneer, along with his braided beard and crimson bandanna, “is the form of man who desires to provide again to his neighborhood.”

“This occasion is well-attended and everyone is a volunteer, together with the plaintiff and three different pirates who had been firing muskets,” Cotter stated. “Tucker is an artist by commerce and he seems to be like Johnny Depp within the photos.”

Reynolds additionally has years of expertise dealing with such weapons, Cotter stated.

“Anybody who makes use of a gunpowder-loaded musket has to know what they’re doing. Anybody who’s skilled with weapons is aware of to put on correct earplugs, and the captain of the ship ought to have worn earplugs, as effectively,” Cotter stated.

However Collier countered that Micks, who labored in development, was sporting earplugs — and since Reynolds was sporting them too, it “demonstrates that he’s conscious that discharges of those muskets can doubtlessly result in listening to harm.”  

“He’s a fiend about ear safety,” Collier argued.  

Relying on the depth of a noise and its proximity to an individual’s ear, “earplugs will not be all the time sufficient,” stated Michael Maholchic, president of the nonprofit Hyperacusis Analysis, which funds analysis into noise-induced ache.

“Except they’re within the navy, many individuals are by no means uncovered to the intense noise of blasts or gunshots at such shut vary,” he stated. “It’s tragic when a noise damage happens at a deliberate leisure occasion. A extreme acoustic damage impacts each facet of an individual’s life. Coping methods can assist, however there may be at present no remedy or treatment.” 

Ear harm from such an impulse noise, even a single blast, will be “quick and everlasting,” harming each sensory cells and nerve fibers, in response to M. Charles Liberman, a professor of otolaryngology at Harvard Medical Faculty. 

“It’s a basic situation,” he stated. “We’ve had many individuals come to Mass Eye and Ear saying, ‘I used to be positive after which a firecracker went off subsequent to my ear and I’ve ringing and it received’t go away.’ The ringing may be very distressing.” 

Tinnitus stays a medical thriller.

“The speculation is that lack of sensory info going to the mind causes tinnitus,” Liberman stated. “Paradoxically, with the lack of sensory enter, neural exercise turns into hyperactive.”

The Milford case is much like a 2015 Boston case by which a passerby suffered extreme listening to harm after ceremonial artillery fireplace at a June Day re-enactment on Boston Frequent. 

“Nobody takes noise and the impact of acoustic trauma severely,” stated lawyer Scott Charnas, who received a settlement in that case.

“You’ll assume somebody in that place — firing a musket — would take precautions and preserve an affordable distance,” Charnas stated. “No person is attempting to be a killjoy and saying you may’t re-create pirate days, however individuals have to be warned that the sound might attain unsafe ranges.”